Partnership between local organizations combines health with nature
By YADIRA SANCHEZ OLSON
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Birds, flowers, squirrels, trees and fish. You can see all this while getting exercise and spending time with your family when visiting forest preserves in Lake County. And all free of charge.
Unfortunately, according to the Friends of Ryerson Woods, Hispanics in the community are not taking advantage of these nature areas and all they have to offer.
But thanks to funding from the Field Museum of Illinois and a partnership between Friends of Ryerson Woods and the Mano a Mano Family Resource Center, now there’s a new program that aims to change that.
“Our main goal is to welcome people in,” said Sophie Twichell, executive director of Friends of Ryerson Woods.
Twichell said that to do that, they came up with a program that offers guided nature hikes in Spanish.
“The idea is to go to different forest preserves in the area and teach about them and the amenities and services,” said Carolina Duke, director of Mano a Mano.
The hikes incorporate both the health factor, which Mano a Mano tries to provide its clients through its health initiatives, and the community outreach that Friends of Ryerson Woods is doing with the Latino families.
The pilot program scheduled four hikes for the months of July, August, September and October and is open to everyone. The first hike took place at the Lakewood Forest Preserve in Wauconda and had a pleasantly surprising response.
“We were delighted to have 30 people come out for the hike,” Twichell said. “That’s more than we thought we’d have.”
The second, held on Aug. 21 at Nippersink Forest Preserve in Round Lake, was also considered a success by both organizations.
“It went awesome!” Twichell said. “The group was so engaged and excited; so ready to soak up the information.”
Families made up the more than 30 people that showed up at the Saturday morning hike at Nippersink to walk the trail and learn interesting facts about the forest preserve and some of its furry, feathery and scaly inhabitants.
“One of the first settlements, Fort Hill, settled in this spot,” said Nan Buckardt, director of environmental education and public affairs at Lake County Forest Preserves.
She led the hike, while Twichell provided the Spanish translation.
“This is very nice,” said Fernando Gutierrez, of Round Lake Park, as he walked with his 2-year-old son, Anthony Gutierrez.
Gutierrez said he participated in the second hike because of how much he enjoyed the first.
“Last time was really interesting. We learned about what lightning bolts do to the trees,” Gutierrez said.
And even though Gutierrez thinks his son is too young to appreciate that kind of information now, he likes the fact that he can take him to bilingual programs such as this one.
“It’s more important for my little one to hear things in Spanish now,” Gutierrez said. “We know that he’ll learn English in school later.”
For other families, these hikes are an opportunity to spend quality time with nature and feel free to ask questions.
“You do learn a lot here,” said Maria Ruiz of Round Lake Park.
Ruiz did the hike with her 7-year-old daughter, Maricruz Trujillo, and her 2-year-old son, Jorge Trujillo, and said that she likes that her kids are starting to have a learning relationship with nature.
“They ask about the trees and the flowers, but I don’t know anything about them,” Ruiz said. “Now, we can learn together.”
At the end of the hike, attendees received a packet on urban birds with information such as what they are called in English and in Spanish and how communities can attract them by planting certain kinds of flowers. The bilingual informational packet is sponsored by Cornell University.
For more information on how to participate in the final hikes of the season, which take on September 18, at 9 a.m. at Grant Woods (Rt. 132 entrance), near Lake Villa and Fox Lake and on October 16, at 9 a.m. at Rollins Savanna, near Grayslake, call Mano a Mano at (847) 201-1521.
